When I Think of Child Development...

“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”

“Plainly, the environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission.”

“The child can develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experiences ‘work’.”

-Maria Montessori

Testing for Intelligence?

Assessment is such a sticky situation, it sparks controversy and debate anywhere you go in the United States. In fact, a quick Goggle search will ignite a firestorm of response on your screen. Let's look at a few of the pro's and con's of standardized assessment in young children.

Pro's -

• Standardized tests are reliable and effective measures of a students achievement of specific measurable standards.


• "A Nov. 2010 report by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, found that school systems in 20 countries 'that have achieved significant, sustained, and widespread gains' on national and international assessments, including Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, had used "proficiency targets for each school" and 'frequent, standardized testing to monitor system progress.' "


• "Standardized tests are inclusive and non-discriminatory because they ensure content and testing conditions are equivalent for all students."


• Competent teachers know not to teach "to the test".


• Standardized testing allows for an accurate collection of data.


• Stricter state standards and accountability have been created because of testing.


• Cheating is very rare and hard to do on standardized testing.
  

Con's -

• "Before age 8, standardized achievement measures are not sufficiently accurate to be used for high stakes decision-making about individual children and schools. Therefore, high-stakes assessments intended for accountability purposes should be delayed until the end of third grade (or preferably fourth grade)."


• "Norm-referenced tests were never intended to measure the quality of learning or teaching. The Stanford, Metropolitan, and California Achievement Tests (SAT, MAT, and CAT), as well as the Iowa and Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS and CTBS), are designed so that only about half the test-takers will respond correctly to most items. The main objective of these tests is to rank, not to rate; to spread out the scores, not to gauge the quality of a given student or school."


• "Virtually all relevant experts and organizations condemn the practice of basing important decisions, such as graduation or promotion, on the results of a single test. The National Research Council takes this position, as do most other professional groups (such as the American Educational Research Association and the American Psychological Association), the generally pro-testing American Federation of Teachers, and even the companies that manufacture and sell the exams. Yet just such high-stakes testing is currently taking place, or scheduled to be introduced soon, in more than half the states."


• "The time, energy, and money that are being devoted to preparing students for standardized tests have to come from somewhere. "


• Standardized testing creates a socioeconomic division that is unparalleled.


• Standardized tests are unreliable forms of measurement due to uncontrollable variances in testing atmospheres and students lives.


• Tests narrow the curriculum leaving out important, valuable life information and skills.
  

Even within the Pro and Con lists above you can argue the facts and see the discrepancies. In the state of Florida standardized testing starts in kindergarten and is judged in third grade. Are students cognitively ready for such a test? How do we consider socioeconomic disadvantaged students? What about the student with the flu? Or the one that had to walk to school today because mom had no money for gas? Or the student that didn't have breakfast and was beaten that morning for asking about it? How about the student that has severe testing anxiety? There are far too many important factors that do not get attention from policy makers. In my humble opinion, as a teacher in a high poverty area (1/3 of my students are homeless) to put the future of a child on a one day standardized test is, to say the least, ridiculous.

Children should be tested using standardized tests. However, they should not control whether a student will pass or fail, and they should not control a teachers pay. Standardized tests are very helpful in detailing what standards students need help on. They create a guideline for lessons and direct units.

After doing some research on the Asian culture, and their take on standardized testing I found a very interesting article by the Denver Post:

"Teaching in Asia, I encountered a system that, while effective there, may not transfer here. For example, Taiwanese students are required to "test" into their middle schools, and many are eliminated from college opportunities by age 12. Additionally, most students attend "cram schools" in the evening to prepare for their tests. The South Korean government has at times shut down all airports nationwide while prospective high school students take the listening portion of their entrance exams.

Japanese schools literally lock their gates at the start of school, and any tardy student is out of luck. Additionally, nearly all these countries use standardized tests to separate students early in life, and most countries offer graduation at the age of 16.Read more: In education, U.S. isn't Singapore (but should we be?) - The Denver Post"

It would seem that we have a fairly relaxed standardized testing system compared to Asian cultures...who knew!?

Sources:

http://www.denverpost.com/voices/ci_14472758

http://www.caesl.org/briefs/Brief5.pdf

http://standardizedtests.procon.org/

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/staiv.htm

A Story of Poverty & Development

My father was born in Mechanic Falls, Maine in the 50's. He was born into what we would now call a "broken home". His mother had two other children from two previous relationships and his father was an alcoholic. My father's mother, Ellen, raised him and his three brothers on a meager wage. She worked at a nearby shoe factory. Standing all day attaching leather heals with a large, hot, smelly, machine. Ellen would come home to her tiny three bedroom trailer to her three boys. They were often taken care of by the neighbor, Ada, who was also poor and a mother. She would watch the boys until the were old enough to go to school. Ellen often tired and sore from manual labor would come home and do the wash, cook, and clean. Leaving the boys to play outside and develop on their own. From what I know of my grammie's education she was not the most studious person. She can read and write, but she never read to my dad. Not that he can remember. She is a very warm, person now. However, when she was a young single mother times were harder, and so was she. Because my grammie was unavailbale to her young sons they turned to each other. They developed a very strong bond, fighting in school to protect each other. This picture of strong family bond leads me to think that my father compensated his father figure with his older brothers, developing his psychosocial development.

My dad, developed a strong sense of touch. He was often outside, around different textures. I have a picture of him in a washtub filled with water outside playing in the mud. He didn't have many toys, but did have what was around him in nature to play with. When he was old enough he got into sports and played basketball and softball. His gross and fine motor skills were very strong. Because my dad was an outdoorsman he developed strong math and science skills. His left brain cogitive development was fully formed. Dad is a very strong problem solver, wonderful at budgeting, and can build something from nothing. He does not enjoy reading or writing. Leaving me to think that his right brain cognitive development was less developed. My father is a very smart, successful business owner. I believe that every family, every individual, has less than ideal developmental domains. Nobody is perfect and nobody can live up to the perfect developmental model. Each family does the best they can to develop well educated, well rounded, adults.

Malnutrition

Just today at school I heard the story of one of my students yelling and crying because the lunch schedule was changed that day and he would be going to lunch later than normal. He was in the library and the librarian just fell apart. She couldn't understand why this child, a child that lives in the community we teach in, did not have anything at home to eat. He was so distraught that he had to go to lunch thirty minutes later than normal.

We have free and reduced lunch and free breakfast. However, this child has to walk to school so he doesn't make it in time for breakfast. The numbers are staggering. Every year 15 million children die of malnutrition.In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night. About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age. We need to do more as a society to reach the basic needs of our most helpless residents. I hope to help instate a weekend backpack program for students like mine. The student council will host a few canned food drives each year to build a food bank. Each weekend needy children will be sent home with an inconspicuous backpack full of nonperishable food items from the school food bank.

Food Network has partnered with Share Our Strength: No Kid Hungry to help combat childhood hunger in America. Please visit their website to learn how you can host a bake sale to raise funds to support their efforts. They work in America and keep up with world related hunger issues. Please read the latest on the Somalian hunger plague from the NY Times below:

"DROUGHTS are cyclical in Kenya. Before, they came every 10 years, but now they seem to be hitting us more often and for longer periods of time. My community remembers events and birthdays by times of hunger. We give the droughts names: “longoza” was the drought when many animals died; there was the drought of the “planes” because food was dropped from the air by planes, and one particularly bad drought was called “man who dies with money in his fist,” because, even if there was money, there was simply no food to purchase.

I was born in 1951 in Machakos. From what my mother tells me, that year there was a serious drought. My sister was born in 1961, and I clearly remember the terrible weather and the prevailing hunger throughout the region. I can’t tell you how many times I went to bed without eating. “I slept like that,” is how we described it, which means we went to bed with nothing to eat. I can’t count the number of days when “I slept like that,” or describe the feeling of going to sleep hungry knowing I’d wake up and there would still be no food for breakfast.

Hunger is an unforgivable disease because it is the easiest one to cure. It is devastating to wake up in the morning and look east, west, south and north and see that there is nothing green that you can chew. During a drought everything goes yellow and dry. I would walk the roads and search the ground to see if someone had spat out a bit of chewed-up sugar cane. I am not ashamed to say that I would re-chew what I would find.

Hunger is dehumanizing. It gets to a level where you do not know how you will survive and you will do anything for a simple kernel of corn.

The thing about drought is that it does not just affect farmers and their crops; it affects everyone. If you think about it, during harvest time farmers hire local farmhands to help with their crops. But when there are no crops to harvest, not only does the farmer lose his or her income, so do the laborers the farmer would have hired. There is a ripple effect that affects the whole community. Few have food and even fewer have money to buy food.

My parents did everything they could to feed us. My father would leave early in the morning carrying a little basket to beg for food or ask for food on credit. Each night he would return home around 10 p.m. My mother, after a fruitless day attempting to find food, would try to encourage us by telling me to keep the water in our pot boiling so that when my father arrived we could quickly cook any food he brought in the already prepared water.

I would keep the fire burning and the water boiling. As the hours passed I would watch the water level slowly go down, along with the hopes that we would eat that night. More often than not, however, my father would arrive frustrated and empty-handed. And I would sleep like that.

It is a traumatizing situation as a young child to be without food. You see the fear in the faces of your mother and father, despairing that they cannot feed their children. You feel afraid, too, because your parents can’t provide for you. Your stomach is so empty that even when you are thirsty and you take water it makes you dizzy. You get so nauseated your body wants to vomit, but you haven’t eaten. I think about this now as East Africa faces another drought. I think about all the children who are suffering as I did. We see terrible images of hunger, but I fear that we have not yet seen the worst.

We are experiencing really serious stress. At the moment, the magnitude of the hunger facing Kenya is not well known.

It is incumbent on all of us to band together and fight this very curable disease. No child on earth should ever have to sleep like that."

Written By: Peter Kimeu
He is a small-scale farmer in Machakos, Kenya, and a technical adviser for Catholic Relief Services, a humanitarian organization.
Published By: The NY Times, September 10th 2011

Childbirth Around the World

As soon as I saw the preview for Babies, a movie depicting the life of four newborns around the world, I was hooked! It is documentary of the life of four babies. The babies are from San Francisco, Nambia, Tokyo, and Mongolian Steppe. Each a vastly different region with vastly different prenatal care, birthing, and postnatal approaches to raising children. There is a wonderful review by Psychology Today here. I, myself, have no children and have never seen a live birth. Frankly, I don't know that children are in my future. However, I admire the birthing process and if I ever decided to do it would probably take the natural route. I believe in the use of midwives and processes such as water births. I would want to have my baby at home or in a relaxing environment, not in a cold hospital. I did experience my nephews birth. He was a 3lb.12oz. premature baby. He was not planned and his mother did not have wonderful prenatal care. In fact I don't remember there being that much prenatal care at all. My nephew was born premature and needed to be incubated. He was so tiny, being wheeled through his family members to the NICU.

I researched the birthing process in France as a comparison to the United States. I assumed that it would be slightly more European with the use of a midwife and more common at home births. I was wrong. The research did mention the use of midwives, but the rest of the process was far more sterile. The mention of multiple pieces of paperwork was necessary for prenatal care. There is the use of a "maternity record book" that must be present at all prenatal doctors visits and should be kept as a record of appropriate prenatal care. These records must be presented to a medical examiner. There is employment protection and job assurance. Home births are not common in France. The whole process seems very sterile and not maternal in any way. To register the infants name you must take the birth certificate to the French nationality authorities who will then register your child as a French citizen.

Sneak Peak for This Weeks Post

http://www.focusfeatures.com/video/babies_the_trailer

Code of Ethics

There are two areas of the Division of Early Childhood Code of Ethics that really stood out to me. The first being 1. 6. We shall build relationships with individual children and families while individualizing the curricula and learning environments to facilitate young children's development and learning. I whole downheartedly agree that as early educators we must get to know our students on such a cognitive level that we can develop the most appropriate learning environment possible. Each student should have an individual education plan. I know most teachers would not agree with me and tell me that IEP's are not necessary for each child and it would take far too much time to conduct an IEP on each child. I'm sorry but I believe that such young students have different learning styles and modalities that need to be addressed. The next item I found interesting on the DEC's Code of Ethics was 3. 1. We shall demonstrate our respect and concern for children, families, colleagues, and others with whom we work, honoring their beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture. During early childhood education students often realize they are different. They eat different foods at home, speak different languages, and ofter worship different gods. However, as early childhood educators we must develop as sense of trust and understanding between such young students. Teaching children about other cultures is a start but we almost patronize the culture by throwing a Cinco De Mayo party or throwing the Star of David up on the wall without explaining it during the holiday seasons. We need to rethink of cultural education. In short, those were two items I found inspirational and interesting in the DEC Code of Ethics.

Additional Resources

http://www.fldoe.org/earlyLearning/

http://www.floridasmart.com/education/orginfo_child.htm

http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2000/goffin00.html

Early Childhood Education Resources

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
• Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al. (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42–53.
Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article's title.
• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
• Websites:
o World Forum Foundation
http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php
This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the video on this webpage
o World Organization for Early Childhood Education
http://www.omep-usnc.org/
Read about OMEP’s mission.
o Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/about/
Click on “Mission/Vision” and “Guiding Principles and Beliefs” and read these statements.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/
• The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/
• WESTED
http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
• Harvard Education Letter
http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
• FPG Child Development Institute
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart’s National Research Conference
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
• HighScope
http://www.highscope.org/
• Children’s Defense Fund
http://www.childrensdefense.org/
• Center for Child Care Workforce
http://www.ccw.org/
• Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org/index.cfm
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
• National Child Care Association
http://www.nccanet.org/
• National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/
• Pre[K]Now
http://www.preknow.org/
• Voices for America’s Children
http://www.voices.org/
• The Erikson Institute
http://www.erikson.edu/

Musings of Piaget and Montessori

"It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth." - Piaget


"Logic and mathematics are nothing but specialized linguistic structures." - Piaget

"The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly." - Piaget

“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.” - Montessori

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.” - Montessori

“It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfill his potential possibilities.” - Montessori

Childhood Development Theories

I recently had the pleasure of researching two influential figures of early childhood education. I chose Maria Montessori and John Piaget. Both individuals focus on the development of young children and their learning through discovery.

Maria Montessori was born in Italy. Maria Montessori’s childhood “responsibilities helped… develop a sense of mastery and leadership and prepared her to make decisions later that would enable her to become a capable woman” (Povell 2007). She was a frontier in woman’s liberation in Italy. Her mother was supportive of her desire to break through the female norm. Montessori studied math and engineering at the age of 13. She then went on to graduate as the first female to obtain her medical degree in Italy. Montessori then developed a love of early childhood studies and began another degree in childhood psychology. “Montessori’s faith in the unlimited possibilities of the child never faltered” (Povell 2007). Maria opened a school in Rome then moved to the United States in 1913 to begin her Montessori Education movement.

John Piaget is an underappreciated European child psychologist from the late 1800’s. He was born in Switzerland. His father was a linguistics professor and his mother a religious fanatic. Piaget was a very bright child and received his doctorate by age 21. He then moved to Zurich to study under Carl Jung. Piaget became a director of psychology at a European university. One of the requirements of Piaget’s students was that they had to spend time observing children. Piaget himself spent a lot of his early career observing children and posing specific questions. Piaget’s developmental theory was based on the fact that children were “freer to experiment, to use play-based pedagogies in which children are thought to create knowledge actively themselves rather than learn it passively from teachers” (Beatty 2009). In the 1920’s and 30’s early childhood education and psychology were merging paths and testing new concepts. So many concepts, in fact, that Piaget’s theories were just one of the many and were brushed under the rug. Piaget developed a theory based on the evolution of children’s thought. His four stages of developmental learning were: sensorimotor, primary operations, concrete operations, and formal operations.

Both Piaget and Montessori developed a love of childhood education and learning by research. Montessori’s research was developmental and knowledge based. She did a lot of her research in medical laboratories. Piaget’s research was on the front lines of early childhood education he spent time with the children. Which is why I relate more to Piaget’s tactics, I appreciate the fact that his developmental theory was tested and measured using real young children. Having said that both Montessori and Piaget essentially came up with the same learning theories, children learn best when they are left to their own exploratory, discovery based self education. I love these theories because I think that children can teach us so much more than we can teach them. They have the luxury of being new to the sensitized world and have new experiences. Each child has the chance to discover something new, a new way of viewing an everyday object that we may not have thought of. This creativity and methodology of education is so important to a young developing child. I hope to incorporate as much of these developmental theories into my future education as possible.

Resources
Povell, P. (2007). Maria Montessori: Portrait of a Young Woman. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, 19(1), 22-24. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Beatty, B. (2009). Transitory Connections: The Reception and Rejection of Jean Piaget's Psychology in the Nursery School Movement in the 1920s and 1930s. History of Education Quarterly, 49(4), 442-464. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Whitney’s Family Web

Whitney’s family web

View more presentations from Whitney Drew

To Deface a Book or Not?

The questions remains. Most people teach their young children not to write in books, not to tear or bend pages. As a reading educator this is exactly opposite of what we teach children to do in school in order to comprehend texts. Margin notes and highlighting are two very common comprehension tools teachers give students who are struggling with reading. So what is the right answer? Do you teach a young child that it is not right to mark in a text? In my opinion you should teach ownership skills here. If the student owns the text then he/she has the right to, and should, write in the book. Make those margin notes, underline unknown words, highlight key concepts. I know book purists are cringing here. I do have a few websites to back me up here: Careful Reading and Marginal Notetaking , How to Write Annotations, Annette's Paper Trail.

(To the right is an example of margin notes borrowed from Annette's Paper Trail. Where she discovered that margin notes in older texts are being considered literary archeology.)

What do you think? Can you live with someone writing in a book? What about dogearing a page?

Reading Rainbow Flashback

For my fellow children of the 80's and 90's. Here is the theme song for the one and only Reading Rainbow. Probably the number one reason I read so much as a child. Besides the fact that my mom would take me to the library and help me pick out the Reading Rainbow selections. :)

Elephant Show

I grew up with Sharon, Lois, & Bram. Here is a tune from the ending credits of the Elephant Show. My all time favorite to watch for the music. Love the classics like "Shoefly Pie" and "The Ants Go Marching."

Skippyjon Jones Webisode

My name is Skippito Friskito. (clap-clap)

"My name is Skippito Friskito. (clap-clap)
I fear not a single bandito. (clap-clap)
My manners are mellow.
I'm sweet like the Jell-O.
I get the job done! Yes, indeed-o. (clap-clap)."
-Judy Schachner, Skippyjon Jones

One of my favorite book series of all time is the Skippyjon Jones collection. Author Judy Schachner is the "mamacita" that wrote these hilarious and interactive books. The books feature a siamese cat named Skippyjon Jones. Skippyjon does not think he is a cat however, he believes with every hair on his little body that he is a chihuahua. Skippyjon's alter ego is born meet...El Skippito! El Skippito goes on tons of adventures, flying to mars and meetings mummies with his pooch pals. He always comes back in time for Mama Junebug Jones to catch him in his mess. Skippyjon's pretending is great fun for all!

As a teacher I love these books for so many reasons. They offer a chance to teach another language, context clues, comprehension, and best of all play! Skippyjon is such a relatable little guy that your students are sure to want to pretend to be him. Check out the Skippyjon website for more teaching resources including coloring pages and masks for students to make.

Above is a webisode found on TeacherTube of Mamacita Schachner reading an excert from Skippyjon Jones, the original book. Enjoy!

What is Creativity?

From Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken:

• Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. (page 396)

• Three reasons why people are motivated to be creative:
  1. need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation
  2. need to communicate ideas and values
  3. need to solve problems (page 396)

• In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. the ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown. (page 394)

(http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm)